{"id":955,"date":"2019-05-20T12:54:57","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T12:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/?p=955"},"modified":"2019-05-20T12:54:58","modified_gmt":"2019-05-20T12:54:58","slug":"the-link-part-1-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/the-link-part-1-3\/","title":{"rendered":"THE LINK \u2013 PART 1\/3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"580\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/oral-hygiene.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"962\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=962\" class=\"wp-image-962\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/oral-hygiene.jpg 580w, https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/oral-hygiene-300x155.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The connection\nbetween oral health and systemic health is well-established and ever-evolving.\nOne thing we know for certain; we are living longer, but with more chronic\ndiseases and medication than ever before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The latest\nstatistics are alarming. Forty-seven percent of US adults who are age 30 or\nolder \u2013 an estimated 64.7 million Americans \u2013 have either mild gum disease\n(8.7%), moderate gum disease (30%) or severe gum disease (8.5%). As the population\nages, the prevalence rises with 70% of individuals over the age of 65\nexhibiting some level of gum disease. And, since we are on statistics, by 2030,\nit is estimated that the number of people over 70 years of age will have\ndoubled from 35 million to 71 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, as we age,\nour risk of developing disease increases. Interestingly, there is also a direct\ncorrelation between the regions of the US with the greatest concentration of\ngum disease and those that have a high incidence of cardiovascular disease and\ndiabetes. Although a direct cause-and-effect link is still in the process of\nbeing established between gum disease (periodontitis) and other systemic\ndiseases, inflammation is often a common denominator. And it is always\nimportant to remember that the mouth is the gateway to the rest of the body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We used to\nthink that if people didn\u2019t brush their teeth well, or didn\u2019t visit a dentist\noften, they would automatically get gum disease. However, there are patients\nwho have poor home care who never develop gum disease, and there are also\npatients who have great home care, visit a dentist regularly, and continue to\nexperience breakdown from gum disease \u2013 albeit at a slower rate than they would\nif they had poor habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We now know\nthat managing gum disease and other chronic inflammatory diseases like\ncardiovascular disease, diabetes, respiratory disease and arthritis are more\npatient specific based on an individual\u2019s \u201cinflammatory mediators\u201d. These are\nmolecules released by immune cells and are largely responsible for individual\nresponses to disease susceptibility and progression. This is why probiotics are\nlikely to play a significant role in treatment of chronic inflammation in the\nfuture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As we wait for\nresearch development for different ways to combat chronic inflammation, it is\nwithout dispute that people should do all they can to minimize inflammation in\nthe mouth. The mouth is very accessible and with proper training, coaching and\nmonitoring, a healthy mouth is better for your whole body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although some may\nsay that the associations between gum and systemic diseases are statistical by\nnature, not causal, the data is fairly strong that there is a link between gum\ndisease and cardiovascular disease \u2013 such as heart infarction and stroke.&nbsp; This supports diagnosing and treating oral\ninfections, including lifelong professional maintenance and good home care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember \u2013\njust because it doesn\u2019t hurt doesn\u2019t mean there isn\u2019t a problem. More next\nweek. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. St. Clair\nmaintains a private dental practice in Rowley and Newburyport dedicated to\nhealth-centered family dentistry. If there are certain topics you would like to\nsee written about or questions you have please email them to him at <a href=\"mailto:jpstclair@stclairdmd.com\">jpstclair@stclairdmd.com<\/a>.\nYou can view all previously written columns at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\">www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The connection between oral health and systemic health is well-established and ever-evolving. One thing we know for certain; we are living longer, but with more chronic diseases and medication than ever before. The latest statistics are alarming. Forty-seven percent of US adults who are age 30 or older \u2013 an estimated 64.7 million Americans \u2013 have either mild gum disease (8.7%), moderate gum disease (30%) or severe gum disease (8.5%). As the population ages, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=955"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":963,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955\/revisions\/963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jpeterstclairdentistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}